Red Wine Ingredient Tied To Mice Longevity

November 2, 2006|By Thomas H. Maugh II Los Angeles Times

An ingredient found in red wine extends lifespan and alleviates disease when fed in huge quantities to obese mice, even though the mice remain fat, researchers reported today in the online edition of the journal Nature.

To reach an equivalent dosage, a human would have to drink about 20 bottles of red wine per day.

The chemical, called resveratrol, previously has found to have life-prolonging effects in yeast, roundworms, flies and fish.

"The fact that you can see such an effect over millions of years of evolutionary differences ... bodes extremely well for the likelihood that this is going to work in other organisms," including humans, said Dr. Stephen L. Helfand of Brown University, who was not involved in the research.

The National Institute on Aging, which funded the study, is planning a trial of resveratrol in rhesus monkeys to determine if the results in mice can be replicated in primates.

And Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Cambridge, Mass. -- a company founded by the lead researcher of the study -- has begun human trials of a related, more potent compound to treat Type 2 diabetes.

"This appears to have a lot of potential," said Dr. Rafael de Cabo of the National Institute on Aging, a co-author of the paper.

But experts warned against self-medicating with resveratrol, a food supplement that is widely available on the Internet and in health food stores.

The dosages used in the mouse study were hundreds of times greater than those found in wine and other foods, said Dr. Richard Hodes, director of the aging institute, and "we still have much to learn about resveratrol's safety and effectiveness in humans."

The products with the supplements are also unregulated commercially.

"For now, we counsel patience," wrote Dr. Matt Kaeberlein and Dr. Peter S. Rabinovitch of the University of Washington in an editorial accompanying the report.

The researchers, led by Harvard University pathologist David Sinclair, studied 165 male mice beginning at 1 year old, the equivalent of middle-age humans. A third of them were given a healthy diet, a third were given a diet high in calories and fats, and a third were given the high-fat diet plus resveratrol.

Both groups fed the high-fat diet became fat, but those receiving resveratrol were much healthier, the team reported. Animals receiving the supplement also had near-normal mobility on standard tests of agility that are usually failed by obese animals.